1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a filler nozzle for placing gasoline in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle, and more particularly, to placing fuel within a motor vehicle equipped with a capless filler pipe closure device.
2. Disclosure Information
Since the dawn of the automotive age, vehicles have been equipped with fuel tanks having fill pipes with capped ends. Unfortunately, removing and replacing fuel caps tends to be a burdensome task for many motorists and, as a result, capless fuel pipe closure devices have been proposed. One such device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,570, and another in U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE 37,776E. With these devices, as well as other capless devices, it is necessary that a fuel pump nozzle be inserted into the capless closure device a sufficient distance, and with sufficient force, to cause a sealed trap door located within the capless closure device to open, thereby allowing further insertion of the fuel pump nozzle.
Because of the need to exclude contamination from vehicle fuel systems, as well as the need to avoid inadvertent opening of the tank, the force required to open capless devices is not insignificant.
During vehicle manufacturing, it is of course necessary to put a factory fill of fuel in the tank of each vehicle leaving an assembly line. Because many vehicle assembly line speeds typically approach 60 jobs per hour or more, fuel filling must be accomplished in a very short period of time. As a consequence, very high fill rates are employed. In order to accommodate such high fill rates, it is necessary that the fuel be introduced at some distance down the filler pipe past the point at which the fuel cap, or in this case, the capless closure device, attaches. This necessitates that the end of the factory filler nozzle be equipped with flexible tubing, such as plastic or metal flexible tubing, because flexible tubing has the ability to curve into the fill pipe. Unfortunately, this requirement for flexibility presents a problem because a flexible fill pipe cannot push through the trap door found in proposed or conventional capless fill pipe closure devices. Moreover, because of its inherent deformability, a flexible filler nozzle extension may become trapped within the capless closure device by the action of the device's trap door. A nozzle according to the present invention overcomes these problems, while allowing the high fill rate needed during factory filling of a vehicle.